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7:38am July 20, 2015

clatterbane:

Also, I think a lot of the same problems extend beyond those very specific kinds of settings.

Personally, I have been physically assaulted a lot more over the years–in obvious ways that hopefully most people would see as abusive–in general medical settings.

From when I kept getting wrestled down and/or slapped by medical staff when I was a terrified little kid having meltdowns. To when a resident from a totally different department sexually assaulted me in an ICU when I was 16, and the staff covered for him. To when a nurse felt entitled to chase me down the hospital corridors and honest to goodness try to tackle me down, when I quietly just tried to leave a stressful situation before I could have a meltdown, when I was 25 and there for a knee surgery. To when I got bullied/forced into having an IUD installed that I repeatedly said I didn’t want, at a routine exam in my early 30s. As just a few examples.

And this kind of behavior is generally excused and treated as normal and even necessary. It can be worse if they’re dealing with people they know have disabilities–developmental, psychiatric, or otherwise–but, no matter who you are this is usually excused as “for your own good”.

Even when there are large public scandals over medical facilities abusing and neglecting patients to the point that enough die from it to get the attention of someone outside the system who has enough power to raise a fuss? There’s some loud tutting about “The Vulnerable”, excuses get made, and not much changes.

A lot of these problems are definitely amplified when the people getting mistreated have developmental and/or psychiatric disabilities. Or when they’re elderly. Because of the generally low value placed on people who belong to those groups.

But, as a society we have some bad problems around the ways power gets concentrated and abused, and lots of systems set up in ways that this is pretty much bound to continue without a total overhaul.